education essay

The Importance Of Self Analysis Education Essay

Published: 23, March 2015

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The main aim of this assignment is to discuss the importance of Self analysis and continuous self development in context to my future as a manger. Self analysis and continuous self development has been described by different authors as a wide and broad topic which the best way to understand it is by just understanding oneself first.

Self analysis can be described as a process that leads to self awareness. Atwater and Yammarino (1992) describes self-awareness as the ability of a person to reflect on the feedback and try to evaluate on the result given to the individual. Also, Goleman (1998) further explains that an individual who is self-aware has a better understanding about him or herself. He stresses the importance of self-awareness as a major factor to managing an organization. According to Goleman (1998) the role of decision making is dependent on the manager. It is therefore important that a manager understands himself and be aware of his or her emotions, personality, beliefs, to be able to build on strengths, work on weaknesses, make good decisions for the success of the organisation. Caproni (2004) also agree that self awareness must be the primary objectives of an individual. He further explained that being self aware gives an insight on what, how you want it and how to go about it. As a manger, it is best to do a check list on him or herself before thinking of managing other people. Baillie (2004) says having a good knowledge of one's capability is as good as having the problem of self-development half solved.

Pedler, Burgoyne and Boydell (2001) define Self-development as an individual development with the subject taking charge of his or her own learning. According to Baillie (2004), you get to understand who you are, what you should do and how to relate with people. Development is a continuous and an open-ended effort to break forth to a new level of potential (Boydell and Pedler, 1981). He explains building oneself continuously to achieve success by responding positively to change. He also stated a number of self-development principles. One of it was that self development involves the learning about oneself. This is important because a manager's personality is reflected in his or her performance this in turn reflects in the organisations performance. Therefore learning about me and identifying my development needs is a major role of success as a future manager in my future. In another view, Mumford (1988) says the most important thing is who managers are and not what they do.

If management is what people need to do and who they are, it is of great importance to understand what and who a manager is?

Many research works have gone into the difference between a manager and a leader. Zaleznik (2004) says a manager is different from a leader been that a manager is a problem solver relying on the efficiency of the people to achieve success. It takes no exceptional characteristic but rather tenacity, doggedness, criticality, tolerance and kindliness. While a leader according to Mumford and Gold (2004) influences people to get work done and he or she must be enthusiastic about the job. However Mintzberg (1989) explains that a good manager must combine interpersonal, informational and be able to make decision for the organization. It can therefore be argued that part of the interpersonal roles is been a leader as stated by Mintzberg (1989). Therefore a manager can be seen as someone who must posses' leadership qualities. Also a manager needs to learn more about him or herself which is through self analysis and identify ways of improving and reflecting on it which is a continuous process in the organization which leads to continuous self development.

In my future career as a future manager, i would be Comparing the attributes of an ideal manager (Nolan, 2009) with the help of my belbin, johari window and emotional intelligence, I can say that my main strengths are good communication skills, team worker, co-ordinator, good listener, patient, respectful and warm with people. In order for development, I will like to improve good communication skills and build on my confidence in a better way. According to Darling (2007), Good communication across all level improves performance and aid organisational development and According to Goldsmith (2006) confidence is essential for both personal life and the business. He suggested ways of building self-confidence: by engaging in more activities and believing in oneself, never compare myself with others, not scared of failing and trying again, make friends with positive and supportive attributes, involve myself in activities i enjoy doing, give and accept feedback.

The best approach to self development is identifying the need for one (Boydell, 1981). I have identified my weaknesses as not been confident, lack of punctuality which i am really working hard on. Surprisingly my punctuality has never affected me in my studies but with friends and appointment i am always finding it hard keeping appropriately to time. For now and my future career as a good manager, and with help of the feed backs i have gotten am working on been better, it will go a long way in helping me tackle them for the purpose of development in my organization.

CONCLUSION

According to different books and journals used above, it can therefore be see and understand that self development and continuous self development is an essential tool for one's career as a manager in the future. It can only be achieved by the willingness of the individual to perform in the organization, having a development plan to make him or her not stray way from the desired goals and objectives of himself/herself and the companies' goal and also cultivate the habit of reflections. My objective is to work on my confidence, gain work experience and continuously review myself to enhance development.

At the residential when we were assigned the first task ''rope task'', we started off as a team but later into the task someone came up with an idea of only men should pull the rope while the ladies should hold without doing anything i had to disagree with him and i told him we should not discriminate better still lets identify everyone's strengths and weaknesses in the game by allowing us to choose which of us could hold or pull the rope so it would not be a clumsy task for us all, surprisingly even some of the men voluntarily said they would hold and some of the ladies said they would pull. With that idea, we were able to do the task in a non discriminating manner and we identified our strength and we came out successful at the end.

How does this reflect the findings of your chosen self analysis toolkit?

According to the feedback I got from my facilitator at the residential in my blind spot on my johari window, i am seen to be a confident person in a group task, i voice out when things are been done discriminatively which i know within me that am not that confident but based on what my facilitator saw on that day of the task it was said that i am very confident and i hold strong in my words until my message is passed across. I could not do this before because am known to be shy but when someone makes the task a gender affair then i would always have to go against it not for personal reasons but in order to identify weaknesses and strengths of every individual and then from there we would be able to work in accordance.

Also in my johari window, the open spot says a lot about me and I totally agree with that and it was seen when we were working in teams. I was patient to a group member's opinion even when others were eager to get the task done without listening to her opinion. I listened to her idea which eventually became the best solution to the problem for the task and in just 19seconds we completed the task and we came out successful. Looking at my emotional intelligence , my social skills section, am known to be a good listener and communicate openly with my team members.

What are the implications for future career or personal development

In my future career as a manager or as a leader, I would take advantage of my open spot which is to be patient, a good listener, been cheerful and many more as seen in my johari window to lead my team into a success. not forgetting my blind spot as to been a confident person, I would as well work on been a better manager or leader with confident of ideas that I have and been able to openly voice it out. I would be patient in listening to others opinion which always gives a sense of belonging when it is a team work even if we might not be able to practicalize what the ideas are due to time constrain be but at least his/her voice is hear but when time is on our side all ideas given would be actualize because we might just be ignoring the best idea of a member that has solution to the problem as seen above when someone's idea that was ignored became the solution to the task at hand.

At the residential, when we were given the flat pack task, everyone was so eager to start the task, a lot of ideas were passed across but for me, I was confused. I had heaps of planks to build into something but had no ideas of what to make out of it, we had very limited time but yet I sat down thinking even if I am not a fast thinker. It was worth trying because at that time was when I spotted the picture of the built plank on my facilitator's hand. The picture was handed to us and we started working more even as a team.

How does this reflect the findings of your chosen self analysis toolkit?

As seen in my belbin, my preferred roles are team-worker and co-ordinator; this was clearly seen in the various tasks we had to do at the residential. I might not be as confident as expected but in the task we had to do after spotting the picture we shared Ideas and with in19seconds of the second round of practice we completed the task. I am a person that likes to be carried along for a better understanding of what i am expected to do and also as seen in my belbin I take my time to listen to ideas and I implement on it. The feedback I got from my facilitator was that am anxious to do my task when ideas are brought up, am a good listener and I always want to understand the idea about the task to be done. Lastly, she said my weakness was that am not strategic and discerning which reflected on my performance in the 1st task we had. If i was to do the task again, I would have repeated all ideas because it brought us success.

Personally, I would develop my thinking skills to enable me have the ability to inspire others and be more confident of my ideas. I would be less anxious which could make me worry unduly in my task.

What are the implications for future career or personal development

Nolan (2009) says that an 'ideal manager is task oriented, possess good communication skills, has general knowledge, has wisdom and the ability to learn, takes responsibility, enjoys good relationships with others, good at being customer focused and at teamwork, manages time and stress makes decision, identify analyse and solve problems, motivates and influence others, delegates, sets goals, manages conflict.

In my future career as a manager, I would put my preferred roles to practice, be able to carry my team along and having a goal to achieve by clarifying the goals. I would be confident in myself and bring my team together to promote team spirit, engage in discussions that would yield good results.

Due to the feedback i got from my facilitator and my group members, I would work on my weaknesses and improve in them. I would always listen to ideas, be more strategic as a manager which would make me inspire my team members.

This incident is based on my past experience in my module activity (business Game). As a group we had to make individual presentation and when my turn came because i was not confident of myself i was scared of making the presentation, i wanted to back out but my team members believed in me and because of the encouraging words of my team members and friends i went ahead and one the day of the presentation, i gave my best and to my surprise even the module tutor commended on the presentation.

How does this reflect the findings of your chosen self analysis toolkit?

As described in my emotional intelligence, it best describes my personality of self awareness as having a great self esteem and been emotional aware of my emotions and their effects. At the residential, when we had the competition of the grid lock task and my team was the last to finish, at a point in the competition I was not happy and wanted to just leave or just burst into tears at the rate of the failure ahead but been aware of my emotions, I decided to positive and stayed on till we finished.

Also my belbin was a clear indication of what my least preferred role was 'a complete finisher'. In the task I clearly saw that attributes in me. I wanted to just leave and forget that we ever did that particular task, i was also anxious because we lacked behind and while other where reaching or had reached the finished time, we were not half way to the end but above all we stood together and worked closer as a team. We co-operated and the task was completed.

What are the implications for future career or personal development

For my future career, I would like to develop the ability of pursing my goals despite the obstacles, never compare myself with anybody and always be myself and at all times be 'CONFIDENT' of myself. I have a good team spirit but not a complete finisher which was clearly exhibited when we had the competition task at the residential. I would not allow my personal emotions to over control me which almost make me lost my team spirit in the competition.

A definition of emotional intelligence by Goleman (1998, p.317) as… the capability for organizing our feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationship.

With the above by Golemans' definition, I would recognize my emotions and the effects, but never allow it over role me even when sometimes I might just not be able to handle it any more but I will always be positive and have a drive for excellent work also putting the feelings of others into consideration.

TASK 3

STRENGTHS

According to my three toolkits, i have been able to analyse my strengths and weaknesses. The analyses reveals that my main strengths are that, am a Good listener, Responsible, Friendly, A team worker, Co-ordinator, Good self esteem, Team building and Service Oriented. I also have the ability to fit into a team and also i shy away from pressuring question because it makes me nervous. I have a pleasant and accommodating attitude. I get on well with my colleagues which make me a friendly person. I have interests in drawing contributions out from others and listening to the ideas as seen in my johari window toolkit.

To my surprise, my belbin and johari toolkit explain how confident i am which i would say i was never confident in anything i do but with the help of my residential, the warmness of the environment i found myself in the past 4months, seminars and presentations i have to build my confident gradually to a certain level in my life now which is why, Megginson and Whitaker (2007) suggest that practising continuous reflective review helps to aid my learning and development process.

WEAKNESSES

My weaknesses in my toolkits show that, I am not a complete finisher, not strategic and discerning, not serious minded, worry unduly and most times i appear indecisive. Haven know all what my weaknesses are, i would work harder in making my weaknesses become my strengths and be confident when i want to make decisions in my day to day life. Judging myself, i would say that now i have just grown that confidence to a certain level even when my belbin analysis reveals that am a confident person. Looking back at the time i first arrived at Northumbria university, i never thought of myself giving presentations, voicing my opinion in my seminar groups because back in Nigeria when i come from, it's a totally different style of learning and we could not even question the decisions of our lectures as it is seen as been rude or the person knows too much. So therefore, lack of confidence was one of my main weaknesses and am happy gradually am overcoming it due to feedbacks i got from my facilitators, and presentation in seminars.

Goldsmith (2006) believes that, confidence is very important for one's usage and organizational use as well. He further identified ways of building self confidence which i decided to indulge myself in and they include; more activities with my colleagues, believe in myself, take responsibility for my own decisions. I have decided not to compare myself with other, think and act positively, give room for feedbacks.

Boy dell (1981) explains that, self development and self analysis is a very good way of understanding oneself and also, the knowledge would be helpful to the individual in the process.

IT'S IMPLICATION FOR MY FUTURE CAREER DEVELOPMENT

In my future career, i need to work harder in my weaknesses, in order for me not to have a setback in my job. As a result of this, it would lead me to taking up a leadership role not only been a team worker. I also aspire to be very confident in my decision making, be punctual and be opened to new ideas, be a good listener and strive to be a complete finisher in my duties.

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